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Dick Cheney memoir 'In My Time' already making waves

August 26, 2011 | 7:37
am

Dick Cheney's memoir "In My Time," to be published next week, tells the story of Cheney's time in Washington and the White House. While the title of the book might indicate he was in charge, he was a two-term vice president under George W. Bush.

Politico got a pre-publication peek at the book and posts some tidbits, including this:

Prologue: Cheney opens by describing his experiences on 9/11, including the refusal of the late Sen. Robert Byrd, who as president pro tempore of the Senate was next in the presidential line of succession after the Speaker, to move to a secure location: “He went home instead. … At one point my friend Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma asked why the executive branch had the right to decide when members of Congress, a coequal branch of government, could come back to Washington. ‘Because we’ve got the helicopters, Don,’ I told him.”

Mr. Cheney’s book — which is often pugnacious in tone and in which he expresses little regret about many of the most controversial decisions of the Bush administration — casts him as something of an outlier among top advisers who increasingly took what he saw as a misguided course on national security issues.

According to Politico, Cheney took at least one swipe at the New York Times. After he accidentally shot his hunting partner in 2006, Cheney issued a statement to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times: “Our choice incensed the White House press pool and the rest of the mainstream media … . But … the last thing on my mind was whether I was irritating the New York Times.”

Cheney's tenure in Washington has included serving as secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush, serving in the House of Representatives for the state of Wyoming and being chief of staff under President Gerald Ford. Cheney co-authored the book with his daughter Liz.

Some detractors are already taking their shots. Alec Baldwin tweeted, "Cover of Cheney's book looks like he's manning the velvet rope at the gates of Hell." And then, "Cover of Cheney's book looks like he's maitre'd at the lounge in Hell. Table for how many?"